Hot Potato

The Burma government last week seemed to be looking for a graceful way to drop a hot potato, i.e., its prosecution for "high treason" of famed Burma Surgeon Gordon S. Seagrave (TIME., Oct. 16 et seq.).

To defend him before a special tribunal, Dr. Seagrave had a powerful battery of legal talent, all serving without fee. His attorney was U Kyaw Myint, probably the best Burmese lawyer. Also at the defense table was able Briton Peter M. Beechenor, a Chinese barrister from Kyaw Myint's office, and an Indian lawyer named Venkataram.

Seagrave had originally been held under Burma's catchall Public Order Preservation Act. The complaint had later been changed to high treason to prevent him from winning temporary freedom under habeas corpus. His health had worsened in jail, and he had been moved to a comfortable private home under guard. When TIME Correspondent Jim Burke interviewed him last week, Seagrave had almost regained his normal health and spirits, but he was pale and looked all of his 53 years. His voice had stopped trembling, but his hands were stained from chain-smoking.

Most serious charge against Seagrave was that a rebel leader named Naw Seng had used his hospital compound, in the hill country near the Burma-China border, as a military headquarters during a brief rebel occupation of the town. Lesser charges included failure to smile at or shake hands with government officials and army men. "Never," said Defense Attorney Beechenor of the prosecution's case, "have I heard so much made of so little." At bottom it seemed that the Rangoon regime, which mortally hates and fears the Karens and other hill-country minorities, could not brook Seagrave's refusal to make political distinctions.

It was also not true that Seagrave had forced native nurses to have sex relations with him. This impression had been due to a careless translator's rendering of the Burmese word chanade as "molest." The word actually means "discriminate." Apparently some nurses dislike Seagrave because of his autocratic ways.

This week the special tribunal decided to try Seagrave on "reduced" treason charges under which no death penalty may be imposed, but which will subject him to banishment or a prison sentence if he is convicted. All along, Dr. Seagrave's greatest fear has been that he will be tossed out of the country and deprived of the work to which he has devoted his life.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.